Defence expenditure to augment by 20pc

[Neo]

Defence expenditure to augment by 20pc

Wednesday, 18 Nov, 2009

In recent months security expenditures had gone beyond Rs40 billion a month much more than the average monthly expenditures mainly due to the on-going military operation against the militants.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s defence expenditures may exceed the budgetary allocation of Rs343 billion by about 20 per cent during the current fiscal year because of the military operation against militants.

Sources told Dawn that the expenditures were estimated to be somewhere between Rs400 billion and Rs410 billion, up by around Rs70 billion against the allocation of Rs343 billion.

The sources said that in recent months security expenditures had gone beyond Rs40 billion a month much more than the average monthly expenditures.

They said security-related expenditures in Waziristan were much higher than during the operation in Swat.

Last year, an amount of Rs296 billion was allocated in budget for defence. This was, however, twice revised upwards, first to Rs311 billion and then to Rs329 billion, up by 11 per cent over the budget estimates.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that security expenditures were higher than expected but has declined to give figures saying he is yet to receive details form the armed forces.

He said that because of higher than estimated expenditures, the revenue target for the current year had been increased from Rs1,380 billion to Rs1,396 billion.

He said receivables from the United States under the coalition support fund currently stood at $1.4 billion that would reach $2.4 billion by June this year.

He said the government was expecting to get about $500 million in about a month.

Responding to a question, the minister said that Pakistan expected to get about $874 million during the current fiscal year. He said energy-related expenditures had also been higher than anticipated.

These expenditures estimated on the basis of certain assumptions, were prone to some risks in case energy mix changed unexpectedly. For example, he said, the government estimated to produce certain level of power from gas, but if gas was not available in the required quantity more furnace oil would have to be imported.

Likewise, if hydel power generation was not available as expected because of lower hydrological conditions, the entire power production dynamics could change, involving higher consumption of furnace oil.